Here Comes the First Day
by too many stars to count
Summary: There are a lot of days when Harry can't get out of bed. After the War, PTSD-like symptoms mentioned. A Ron, Harry, and Hermione friendship fic. Please read and review!


**A/N:** This was a comment fic written for the prompt "Harry, post-war, sometimes he wakes and everything is right but most days the world has been knocked on its side" I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you think!

Here Comes the First Day

There are a lot of days when Harry can't get out of bed.

He tries. Merlin, does he try. He'll go to sleep telling himself that tomorrow he's gong to get up and _do _something. But then morning comes and Harry is exhausted from nightmares and not sleeping and all he can do is burrow further into the covers.

Eventually Ron or Hermione will come in to check on him, bring something to eat, force him into the shower, something. Harry complies because it's easier than arguing but he doesn't speak to either of them. His head feels full and everything seems far away and not very important.

o0o

On the day Fred is buried he drags himself out of bed. The man died because Harry couldn't end things fast enough. The least Harry can do is pay his respects. He selfishly hopes the Weasleys don't hate him and almost cries when Molly hugs him.

Remus and Tonks are buried together and Harry spends hours after everyone else has left crying and apologizing to the two mounds of dirt that hide their bodies beneath them.

Other days, not very often but sometimes, he wakes up and feels like himself. Those are the days that Ron and Hermione wake up to Harry cooking breakfast barefoot and happy in the kitchen, humming to himself.

He knows those days are special and rare and he tries to use them as much as he possibly can. Harry spends those days running around, doing errands, answering owls, buying groceries and laughing with his friends until he stumbles to bed, tired and content.

The next morning he can't remember that energy or that joy. All he can remember is the faces of his schoolmates, blank and young looking, in death. He can't imagine getting out of bed and cooking breakfast, let alone leaving the flat. Instead he's stuck against his will imagining Fred dying, the way Lavender screamed as Fenrir sunk his teeth into her shoulder, how broken Colin's small body had looked in death.

o0o

Shacklebolt has asked all three of them to become Aurors.

Hermione declines, she's finishing school and making a difference by changing laws, she's had plenty of hunting down Death Eaters.

Ron agrees to come once Hermione heads back for her 7th Year. He doesn't want to be separated from her, and he won't leave George on his own at the shop just yet.

Harry said he'd come when Ron came but now he's not sure he'll even be able to get dressed for Auror training.

o0o

Finally, one morning, Ron comes into Harry's room and throws his broom onto the bed. "C'mon." He says impatiently. "We're going flying." Harry doesn't much feel like flying but the look on Ron's face says this isn't optional. "We're going to fly," Ron says firmly, "Until you start to feel like yourself again. You can get up on your own and do something, or you can fly with me, but you can't stay in bed anymore. And you're eating breakfast first so get moving."

Harry obeys because there doesn't seem to be a choice. He eats mechanically distantly noting Hermione's surprise when he appears at the breakfast table and then follows Ron outside.

After Ron hands him his broom and he kicks off something changes.

He remembers the game his third year when his Nimbus 2000 got destroyed and how kind Remus had been when helping him learn the Patronus Charm. He remembers the stories Sirius would tell about racing James around the Qudditch pitch after practices both of them trying to out do the other. He can see Colin Creevy with that camera of his clicking away and hear Fred and George's taunts as if they were besides him.

He lands, Ron not far behind, and beings to sob.

As if this had been some sort of cue Hermione appears gathering him into her arms soothing him quietly. Another weight appears pulling them both onto the grass and Ron and Hermione hold him as he cries. "I miss them so much." He manages to say.

Quietly, his voice thick with tears, Ron says "So do I." He feels Hermione nodding against him and they stay like that for a long while.

When they get back up, his head feels clear for the first time in months.


End file.
